Well it's new patches all across the board. Rift's 1.6 added Ember Isle, STO's Season 5 heralds the first big changes before F2P, and EVE Online just dropped a 1.2 gig whopper in the form of Crucible.

Admittedly, I haven't been following EVE as closely as I had wanted since Incarna; the "ambulation" interiors didn't quite stun me that much and the PVE grinding aspect had lost a lot of its charm. That, and I totally got nailed in nullsec and lost a lot of wealth. Lickin' wounds never tasted so bitter. Ahem. And then there was the big uproar over the virtual goods store, which I never really understood since the whole thing seemed obviously aesthetics-only. Are monocles really worth the uproar?

Anyways, it seems Crucible is focusing on things I find a lot more interesting: gameplay! And new ships! I haven't really had a chance to go through all the patch notes yet, but the listed buffs to hybrid weapons caught my eye. I thought there were supposed to be some buffs or changes for Assault ships, but I didn't see any of those... maybe I misread. Anyhow, full update and first impressions to follow.

Although I may not be the biggest EVE fan - I don't really like PvP in general and the game doesn't have much PvE content - there are a lot of systems I liked in EVE. I often cite EVE's economic system when writing about that topic. Now EVE's introduced another feature that I like... kinda.

EVE has introduced a new portrait creator system, where you create the portrait for your character so other players have a way to visually identify you. The system has a fairly comprehensive 3D modeling interface, where you create your character's face and body, add hair and features, and clothes. Then, you pose your character and take a picture to share with all the other pilots. Here's what I created for my pilot, Gaylen Della:

The portrait you see above is the portrait from the log-in screen; in-game, the portrait that you and everyone else seed is always much smaller. However, if you click the picture above you'll see a high def version of the portrait from inside the character creator application. What frustrates me about this system is that you can never return to the character creator: you can never re-pose your character, for example, nor can you ever see your character in that higher resolution. Nor can any other player; you can't share your high-def 3D portrait with others.

EVE Online is starting up a galactic event where the Sansha pirates invade sectors of space all over in Empire areas. The spawns have big groups of rats, like up to 50 battleships and even carriers. You have to fleet up to fight them though and you can get ganked while doing it... and not just by having your fleet be blown up by the other players.

You can be doing a site and another group can gank you out of the site. Like you're doing it with 5 friends in a fleet together and then a fleet of 100 come and blow everything up. Because the rewards only go to "the fleet that participated the most in the site in question" you have to be able to fight off the other players that are going to come and steal your site.

Or you can team up. You're supposed to form fleets. You want fleet bonuses, like 20% bonus shields or resists or damage. If you have someone in a command ship with fleet boosters and implants... even better. Plus they make being a fleet WAY more profitable. It's also good from a game design perspective because it encourages participation that might lead to social bonding, which in turn builds stronger player retention.

I just saw the trailer for the new Tyrannis expansion for EVE Online, and I wanted to share it with you, just in case you missed it. EVE trailers took a turn from the mundane to the exceptionally well produced with the Butterfly video. Note, however, that they are WELL PRODUCED but completely misrepresent the actual game. Take a look for yourself.

Now, could someone can show me how Gallente ships fire massive beams that one-shot Caldari ships, please? Though I've often wished to use weapons like that to blow up other players who are exploiting the open game system to harass and grief other players. You know, I could turn this post into a giant rant about EVE Online's lack of any semblance of respect for its PvE players, but I won't; I'm just sticking to the trailer. It looks cool, at any rate.

You'll notice, however, that it once again focuses on hammering home the misguided notion that EVE allows individual players to play significant roles in the universe. Most worrying is the tagline "all these worlds are yours" near the end of the video. Of course these worlds aren't actually yours. In fact, the vast majority of players will never even see whatever interface will be added for planetary control. The promo site claims that there are over 60,000 planets and anyone (including New Players? hahaha!) can claim a planet and found a colony. Really? If it's anything like every single other mechanic in EVE Online, a few rich and powerful players will take control of everything. I hate to be a party-pooper, but the whole wormhole effort that was supposed to open content to new players just added more exclusive content for a rare few players and left most players eager to find adventure in exploration lost in the dust.

Eh, well, EVE is designed for the Corpies. Theoretically, I suppose it could actually be good for players in a good corp, but with my 3 for 3 failure rate at joining a fun corp, I really wouldn't know myself. /bitter